Thousands of shoppers thronged the newly opened Swedish home furnishings behemoth IKEA on August 9 in Hyderabad. It was an almost stampede-like situation at the 13-acre facility when 30,000 customers visited the store in a single day.
Massive crowd hit the normal life resulting in huge traffic jams in the city on the day of the public opening of IKEA’s much-waited store in India.
John Achillea, IKEA’s Managing Director for Telangana said, “I am so excited today, we can see so many customers visiting in the building. It’s just a phenomenal feeling. We have every product under one roof, so whether you are looking for a sofa, bed, children’s furniture, or home accessories for every room, it’s all under one roof.”
IKEA Group CEO Jesper Brodin has said that the opening of the first store in India marks a milestone in the company’s journey here which began over three decades ago through sourcing of products. “We have a long-term commitment to India, which is an important market for us,” he added.
“As we see big opportunities in India, we believe that we will increase this investment as we continue expansion in India in future,” CEO added.
Naveen Chintala, a customer said, “I have shopped at an IKEA store in Sweden and was curious about how their store in India will look like. It feels the same. I never expected this kind of collection of products and I am surprised.”
He revealed that IKEA’S second store would be in Mumbai next year, followed by Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR.
